It was nearly a full month ago when Donald Trump started publicly lobbying for a pre-election government shutdown. As the former president saw it, congressional Republicans had some leverage, which they could use to demand passage of a far-right election scheme called the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
“I would shut down the government in a heartbeat if they don’t get it,” Trump said in late August. “If they don’t get these bills, they should close it down and Republicans should not approve it.”
It was not a stray comment. On Sept. 10, the GOP nominee wrote on his social media platform, “If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET.”
In the same missive, after lying about Democrats registering undocumented immigrants, Trump added, “DON’T LET IT HAPPEN — CLOSE IT DOWN!!!”
In case that was too subtle, the former president published a related item a week later. “If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump wrote, referring to a stopgap spending bill that would prevent a shutdown. The same message concluded, “BE SMART, REPUBLICANS, YOU’VE BEEN PUSHED AROUND LONG ENOUGH BY THE DEMOCRATS.”
Exactly one week later, Congress passed a continuing resolution to prevent a shutdown. In the House, 82 House Republicans ignored Trump’s demands, as did 28 Republicans in the Senate. These GOP members realized (a) that Democrats were never going to agree to the SAVE Act; and (b) they’d be blamed for a pre-election shutdown they created.
As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently warned his fellow Republicans, such an endeavor would be “politically beyond stupid.”
There’s a myth in some circles that the former president can simply bark orders and watch GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill obediently follow his instructions. But on multiple occasions throughout the Biden era, quite a few congressional Republicans have heard Trump’s demands, recognized the risks to their own careers, and blown off the former president.
But as members head back to their home districts for a couple of months, and the dust settles on the unnecessary recent drama, we’re left with a lingering question: Why exactly did Trump push so aggressively for a shutdown in the first place? As it turns out, Politico published a good report along these lines this past weekend, before a bipartisan deal was reached. The former president had convinced himself that a shutdown over voting laws would usher in a GOP wave, enabling him to not only reclaim the White House but land substantial majorities in Congress. Trump, after all, had been burned by the 35-day-shutdown over his demands for a border wall at the end of 2018, with voters overwhelmingly blaming him as president for the chaos that ensued. Therefore, he reasoned, Joe Biden, Harris and the Democrats would take the heat this time around, since they’re the ones in power.
In other words, if the reporting was accurate, Trump was convinced that Republicans could shut down the government, six weeks before Election Day, in pursuit of a ridiculous anti-voting law, at which point voters would reward Republicans with their support. These were the apparent assumptions of a man who, during his presidency, oversaw a handful of shutdowns, each of which ended with Trump surrendering in humiliating fashion. The former president’s faults are legion and well documented, but I wonder if Republicans fully appreciate just how terrible Trump is when it comes to strategic thinking.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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